The Provision of Public Services

As Eric and Bill have noted, we’re snowed-in in the mid-Atlantic. The snow started in DC late Friday morning and, with another foot or so due tomorrow afternoon, I don’t know when we’ll be able to get out of the house by car.

Of course, we’re just sitting here waiting for the county to come by and plow our street. We’re on a short block with 8 houses — I can see freedom on the major road at the top of the hill — so we’re very low priority for the county. And, apparently, the large snow drifts mean only big earth-mover plows will work, and they don’t fit under the low wires at the bottom of the street.

So what would life be like if our street were private, or, at the very least, snow plowing services were not “provided” (if that term even applies when you’ve been snowed in for 3 days and counting) by the city or county? This is the 7th wealthiest county in the nation, so it’s not like people couldn’t afford this service. I’m in no rush — I’m getting ahead on work, the university is closed, and I’m getting to spend lots of time with my daughter — but my husband is getting behind on work and the companies’ clients are probably not happy that only four people made it to the office today. A neighbor closer to the corner dug himself out with a shovel well enough to get his 4WD to freedom. If enough of us really needed to get out, would we be able to afford the plowing service? Would there be enough plows to have cleared all of the streets by now? Who knows, but I’d love to see that day.

One thing that I am in a hurry for is for a tree branch that has fallen on the power lines coming to the house to be cleared. The utility monopoly is unlikely to get to this soon — even if the roads were cleared. We have power, and the news says there are “thousands” without power — so we’re low priority. Again, there’s no price mechanism to allocate the high-voltage tree-clearing resources.

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6:08 pm on February 8, 2010